Handle for firearms



UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH H. WESSON, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

HANDLE FOR FIREARMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 525,246, dated August 28, 1894. Application tiled J une 13. 1894. Serial No. 514.420. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH H. VESSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Handles for Firearms, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in handles for revolving tire-arms, more particularly those usually highly finished revolvers having polished mother-of-pearl cheek-pieces at the handles.

The object of this invention is accomplished by constructing the cheek-pieces, which essentially embody a thickness of pearl with a sublayer of a material which has a degree of elasticity and which is devoid of brit-tleness, t0 lie directly against the metal handle portion of the frame of the arm, and which operates to protect the more frangible outer layer of pearl by affording, in its interposition, an elastic medium to receive the shock of tiring.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side view of a revolver with the improved handle cheek-pieces. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the arm. Fig. 3 is a representation in perspective of the two layers which constitute the cheek-pieces with those sides exposed which are imposed the one against the other. Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view ot' one of the cheek-pieces.

In the drawings, A represents the handle portion of the frame of the arm which is of metal, as usual, and B indicates the cheekpieces, each of which, as a whole, has the usual, or any suitable contour. Each cheekpiece consists of two thicknesses, or layers, the inner one, a, of india rubber, gutta percha, or analogous material, and the outer one of mother-ot'pearl. This layer, a, is vulcanized to less than the maximum degree of hardness, that is to say, it is, as compared with the pearl layer, b, yielding and elastic and devoid of the extreme frangibility of such outer layer. The two thicknesses,aJ and b,are joined, facewise, by a cement, or by dowels and sockets, or by both, and are held upon the handle portion of the frame, A, by the screw, d, in the usual manner; and said screw, if desired, may be relied upon to hold, or assist in holding, the layers of the cheek-piece together.

' In the handle of the arm substantially as described, there is in the relation of the cheekpiece to the frame a non-metallic contact with the consequent advantage that the violence of the shock of liring is minimized in its transmission tothe pearl layer, While on the other hand the layer, a, forms a semi-elastic bed for the pearl layer so that blows against the outer sides of the pearl will not be so likely to result in the fracture of the pearl as would be the case in the absence of the interposed layer, a., in which case the pearl layer would have a hard bearing against the steel or iron frame.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and \desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-' l. A cheek piece for the handle of a lire arm which consists of an outer layer of mother of pearl and an inner layer of elastic material cemented thereto, substantially as described.

2. A cheek-piece for the handle of a fire-arm which consists of an outer layer of motherof-pearl and an inner layer ot' india rubber, or analogous material, substantially as described.

JOSEPH H. WESSON.

`Witnesses:

H. A. CHAPIN, WM. S. BELLoWs. 

